HOLLYWOOD almost seems to have run out of ideas when it comes to making romantic comedies which are original, poignant and funny.

A fact not helped by the avalanche of insipid films made with the likes of Jennifer Aniston, Ashton Kutcher, Julia Roberts, Adam Sandler, Vince Vaughn et al.

All of these stars carry far too much baggage to make their movies seem believable.

Three cheers, then, for Ruby Sparks which feels both fresh and fun.

Yet the distributors are selling it defensively via a default mechanism.

Their new comedy drama is being billed as coming from ‘the directors of Little Miss Sunshine’ – the still little known Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris.

But that was six years ago.

And neither filmmaker has directed a film since.

In fact, film-goers in their late teens – the very people who will surely love Ruby Sparks the most – might never have heard of Little Miss Sunshine or its directors.

Better, then, to concentrate on the present... and the much more remarkable feature of this film.

The story is about Calvin Weir-Fields (Paul Dano), a young novelist with writer’s block.

He’s not interested in girls who only know him because of a previous big hit, but would like to be in a relationship regardless.

When he sits down at his typewriter and creates his dream girl, she appears in his flat.

But is she fantasy. Or is she real?

Regular readers will know that since Winter’s Bone (2010), I’ve been raving about Jennifer Lawrence, who went on to star in The Hunger Games.

And this has been a wonderful break-out year for my star of 2012, Elizabeth Olsen (Liberal Arts / Martha Marcy May Marlene).

Now we can add Zoe Kazan to the mix.

At 29, she has already starred in quaity films like In the Valley of Elah, Me and Orson Welles and Revolutionary Road without making a star name for herself.

But the fact that SHE is the one who has written this film AND put in such a captivating performance on screen marks Zoe out as a real talent to watch.

A young woman, perhaps, who will truly flower in her thirties (she’ll be in The F Word next year with Daniel Radcliffe).

I certainly can’t remember seeing an actress in the modern era who looks anything like her.

As Ruby, she is a dazzling temptress. Yet wonderfully grounded at the same time.

Just the kind of girl, in fact, you wanted to move in next door.

Having starred in movies like Little Miss Sunshine and There Will Be Blood, Paul Dano has already proved himself.

Here, he’s like a geekier Ed Norton, fully believable as a writer whose social skills with the opposite sex are lacking.

Few romantic comedies have you really wanting a couple to get together, but this one does.

Like Liberal Arts last week and On the Road this week, there’s a long overdue emphasis on writing by hand. Or at least with a proper typewriter.

On the downside, while there are times when Ruby Sparks is shot beautifully it can look just too ‘digital’.

The whole mid-movie set-up with Annette Benning and Antonio Banderas threatens to have their familiarity derail the movie.

Elliot Gould’s role as bearded shrink Dr Rosenthal is much more sympathetic to the tenor of the whole piece.

The story, of course, isn’t particularly original, whether you draw parallels with something like Tom Hanks’ Big (1988) or Will Ferrell’s Stranger Than Fiction (2006), but in this context that doesn’t matter because while Ruby Sparks isn’t perfect, it really does sparkle.

And, unlike Jennifer Aniston movies such as The Break-Up, He’s Just Not That Into You, Love Happens, The Switch and Horrible Bosses, it will stay with you.